BUJUMBURA, (Reuters) – Burundi’s ex-President Pierre Buyoya said yesterday he had resigned his position as an African Union envoy after his conviction and life sentence last month for the 1993 killing of another president who defeated him in an election.
Along with 18 others, Buyoya was convicted in absentia by the Supreme Court for the killing of Melchior Ndadaye, the country’s first democratically elected president, that triggered a 10-year civil war which claimed at least 300,000 lives.
In a tweet, Buyoya, whose whereabouts are not known, said he had resigned his position as the AU’s envoy for Mali and the Sahel region.
“Following the verdict given by the Supreme Court of my country, I have decided, by my own will, to resign as the AU high representative for Mali and the Sahel” he said.
“I want to be free of all constraints to devote my time for my defence despite numerous obstructions.”
He tweeted after the ruling in October that he would appeal against his conviction in national and international courts, posting a statement that the case was “purely political”.
Buyoya had been an AU envoy for eight years. In 2018 Burundi’s top government prosecutor issued an international arrest warrant for Buyoya and his co-accused.
